That a brief history of MPH should start with a missionary may seem strange, but it sets the motion to the train of events, that, eventually led to the establishment of MPH.

In 1807, Robert Morrison was the first Protestant missionary sent by the London Missionary Society to work in China. He translated the New Testament and Old Testament into Chinese with the help of an eager young missionary, William Milne. After being in Macau for two years, Milne chose to set up a printing press in Malacca in 1815. Among his achievements in his first few years there were to start up the Malacca Anglo-Chinese College and print the first Chinese edition of the Old Testament.

In 1890, Captain W.G. Shellabear arrived in Singapore to establish a printing press known as the Amelia Bishop Press. The aim of the publishing venture was the printing of Christian literature, and eventually, the setting and printing of secular work was taken up. Amelia Bishop Press moved to Raffles Place in 1893 and changed its name to the American Mission Press. The Book Room was established to sell publications of the Mission Press, school books and other supplies for the Mission’s schools.

Shellabear is recognised as the founder of the Malaya Publishing House whose far sightedness in bringing modern printing techniques to Singapore contributed to the growth of the Southeast Asian publishing industry. Methodist Christians know him as one of the founders and early leaders of Methodism in Malaya, and as a translator of the Bible and many other religious texts into Malay. Among old Malay classics reprinted by Shellabear include Sejarah Melayu and Hikayat Abdullah.

In 1900, Rev. William T. Cherry arrived and helped turn the foundations built by Shellabear into a multi-faceted organization - printing, publishing, bookselling, and book distribution. The American Mission Press changed name to the Methodist Publishing House in 1906, from which the acronym MPH was derived. It was in 1908 that the Methodist Publishing House moved into its new building at the corner of Stamford Road and Armenian Street. The company became a public stock company in 1927 with an experienced Board of Directors and the Publishing House was officially incorporated as Malaya Publishing House Limited.

In 1928, Frank Cooper Sands became the Managing Director of the new Malaya Publishing House. The company was carrying on its business as ‘proprietors and publishers of and dealers in newspapers, journals, magazines, books and other literary works and undertakings.’ Frank Sands reopened the publishing house in 1945 after the Japanese occupation, which left most of the printing equipment removed or destroyed, and the building on Stamford Road badly deteriorated.

In 1963 the Malaya Publishing House changed its name to Malaysia Publishing House and began operating as a wholesale book department. The retail side, under the name of Malaysian Books Limited, had new bookstores opening at Selangor Mansion in Kuala Lumpur, Beach Street in Penang and at Jalan Laksamana in Malacca. At Stamford Road, the ground floor was turned to general bookselling.

1966 saw the Malaysia Publishing House ailing financially. The company was bought over and set up under a consortium headed by Masagung, a sixth-generation Chinese Indonesian. Under the new management, there were 4 subsidiaries: MPH Books, MPH Printers, MPH Publications & Lian Tak MPH (producing exercise books & paper products). Despite its problems in the 1960s, the company continued to publish a range of old and new titles. In 1972, Jack Chia Holdings (Hong Kong) bought over MPH. As Jack Chia-MPH Limited, its various subsidiaries were divided into the Books and Publications Division, the Consumer Products Division, the Timber Division, the Hotel Division and the Services Division. The Books and Publications Division took on new activities like publication of magazines.

The company was publicly listed and bought over in 1999 by Singaporean entrepreneur Simon Cheong and changed its name to MPH Ltd in March 2000. In 2002, the MPH brand with its book retail and book distribution arm, MPH Bookstores and MPH Distributors respectively, was bought over by a Malaysian company, Jalinan Inspirasi Sdn Bhd. It is part of a large Malaysian conglomerate owned by Malaysian businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary. For the first time, MPH becomes a wholly Malaysian-owned company.

Recently, the MPH Group restarted its printing and publishing arm; MPH Group Printing and MPH Group Publishing respectively. Jalinan Inspirasi is now known as the MPH Group, which owns MPH Bookstores (Malaysia and Singapore), MPH Distributors (Malaysia and Singapore), MPH Group Printing and MPH Group Publishing.

Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) is an international bookseller based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Borders is (as of 2005) the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States (after Barnes & Noble), selling a wide variety of books, CDs, DVDs, periodicals, as well as gifts and stationery.

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As of 2007, there are more than 500 Borders stores in the United States, and around 500 Waldenbooks and Borders Express stores, mainly in U.S. malls and airports.

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A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of northern Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder- four men who know exactly who William and Annie are, and where their desperate mother is waiting for news of her children's fate. The kids soon find they don't know whom they can trust among their L.A. transplantneighbours, including hundreds of retired Southern California cops who've given the area it's nickname: .'Blue Heaven." As a group of dirty cops spearhead the search for William and Annie, one false move will stop these children from ever finding their way home. With true-to-life, unforgettable characters, ox has created a thriller that delves into issues close to tile heart: the pervasiveness of greed, the banality of evil, and the truth about what constitutes a family. In a story where unlikely heroes find themselves at the cross- roads of duty and courage, BLUE HEAVEN delivers twists and turns until its last breathtaking page.

Jackson Workman Pickens—known to most as “Work”—mindlessly holds together his disintegrating life: a failing law practice left to him when his father, Ezra, mysteriously disappeared, a distant wife who shares their loveless marriage, and an estranged sister who bore the brunt of their childhood trauma.

And then Ezra’s body is discovered.

Set to inherit his father’s fortune, Work becomes a prime suspect. But so does his sister, Jean. As much as Work’s life was overshadowed by his domineering father, Jean’s life was nearly destroyed by him. But does that make her capable of a vicious murder? Fearing the worst, Work launches his own investigation, crossing paths with a power-hungry detective, a string of damning evidence, and the ugly rumors that swirl within his small, moneyed Southern town.

Desperate for the redemption that has eluded him for so many years and stripped of everything he once valued, he fights to save his sister and clear his name—in this poignant and thrilling anatomy of a murder and its ripple effect within a family and a community.

A Woman In Charge

Carl Bernstein's portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton shows the true trajectory of her life and career, with its bursts of risks taken and safety sought--a detailed, sophisticated account of the complex political meteor who has helped define one president and may well become another. We see the shaping of Hillary as a self-described "mind conservative and heart liberal"--Her ostensibly idyllic Midwestern girlhood; her early development of deep religious feelings; her curiosity fueled by dedicated teachers, by the ferment of the sixties, and, above all, by a desire to change the world. At Wellesley Hillary thrives, already perceived as a spokeswoman for her generation. At Yale Law School she meets Bill Clinton and ties her fortune to his. Bernstein clarifies the dynamic of their marriage, shows us the extent to which Hillary has been instrumental in Bill Clinton's triumphs and troubles, and sheds light on her own political brilliance and her blind spots.--From publisher description.

When the administrative head of the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is found dead with a chisel in her heart, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. Dalgliesh must analyze the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted desires of patients and staff alike to determine which of their unresolved conflicts resulted in murder.

With "discernment, depth, and craftsmanship," wrote the Chicago Daily News, A Mind to Murder "is a superbly satisfying mystery."

Cheverell Manor is a lovely old house in deepest Dorset, now a private clinic belonging to the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn arrived there one late autumn afternoon, scheduled to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed, she had every expectation of a successful operation and a pleasant week recuperating.

P. D. James has gained an enviable reputation for creating detective stories of uncommon depth and intricacy, combined with the sort of humanity and perceptiveness found only in the finest novelists. The Private Patient ranks among her very best.